Pull your Preview panel down so you can see all of the options. Switch the preview shortcut dropdown to the Num 0 option and check to make sure it has the Cache before playback option checked. That should make it behave similar to the old RAM preview.

If you have a preview cached and it's not playing those cached frames back in real time, there's a bug.

One thing to try.

Make your timeline smaller. I'm assuming you're working on a 4K or 5K screen. Shrink your timeline panel vertically so it takes up a lot less screen space and try again.

If that doesn't help, try pressing ` to make your comp window fill the screen and try it.

If that doesn't help, try putting another panel (such as the libraries panel) underneath the timeline.

Please, please, please file a bug report and give them as much information as you can (including what you've tried and what worked). This is one of those really persistent bugs introduced by this new architecture that the Adobe people need more help squashing.

I have the same problem here. Video preview was weird. Now that I'm previewing with an audio track I can definitely say that the preview is not realtime. Sometimes it doubles the frame, sometimes goes slower or faster. The audio sounds distorted and jumpy.

Hello, so now its for me also time to get into the discussion because I have the exact same issues with the RAM Preview.

What I tried and what helps to get around this:

- making the timelinewindow smaller, so its just some layers high

- moving the rendered workarea out of the timeline view

If I see the timeline in "normal" size and the rendered work area, it makes also a lot of these vertical lines which look like coming from the current time indicator.

My system is a Z800 Win10 PC with latest AE 13.8.1.38 running. AND I am working with a two 4K Monitor Setup, while Windows scales 125%.

Another "strange" behavior while RAM Preview is, that during the glitchy playback, the Disk Cache is creating a lot of workload on my Media Stripeset, which I would not really expect because it should play out of the RAM? Shouldnt it?

I have a simple animation which shouldn't be any problems at all to preview but even if I cache the preview, lover my timeline, add a panel beneath it it still previews in 9-15fps with a quarter resolution. This is insane! I need to render out my animation to see it in real time! Unacceptable! My impression is that it's better to install AE 2014 and work in that. The AE CC has had this problem all along!

Still the same problem here even after the new updates. Cache Before Playback is on. Can't preview 4 seconds without distortions. I'm on a Mac Pro with SierraOS.

That's got to be really frustrating. My Mac doesn't have the issue, but that's because it's a 15-inch MacBook Pro from 2011, so I don't have a huge screen resolution. I'm sure this is a high-priority issue for the AE team at Adobe as it's affecting so many people. They've done a few things to fix the issue for some people (it's not nearly as much of an issue in the CC 2017 release as it was in the first CC 2015 release), but the main issue is still a problem it would seem.

Hopefully they are close to a proper, real fix. They know it's a widespread issue that frustrates a lot of people, but it's taking a while to nail down the underlying cause. If you haven't yet, you could file a bug report. Give them as much technical information as you can about your system and the problem you're experiencing (but try to keep emotion out of it - I know it's frustrating and they know it's frustrating, so let's just try to get it solved )..

That is so wierd! It did work for me though but how can that be an issue if its stacked or not?

Here's a simplified answer: Mac 10.11 changed how redraw rectangles are calculated when they intersect the region at the bottom of the application window between the rounded corners, which forced After Effects to invalidate how it was re-drawing the timeline and then draw a much bigger region than expected, which slowed down the refresh rate during previews. So, doing odd things with the UI fixes it in some cases (like docking a panel underneath.)

Hopefully a proper fix from Adobe comes so workarounds like this aren't needed.

What about the Windows version? Still the same Preview Issues here, also with CC 2017!

If you are having issues with this on Windows, it may be similar symptoms, but it's an entirely different cause. I've heard only one or two other people on Windows with a similar issue. You should create a new thread (since it's a different problem) and share as much information as you can about your system. It's a very rare problem, so it's probably going to require a good bit of troubleshooting to find the cause.

This update is 14.0.1 and should be a bug fix for this and several other disturbing issues - especially for Mac users. It does not fix all the bugs that are new with the CC 2017 release (Known issues in After Effects CC 2017), but it does fix some issues that have been plaguing After Effects since the first parts of the new architecture showed up in the CC 2015 release.

If you can't see the update yet, you may need to wait a while until you see it as it can take up to 24 hours to populate an update across all the data centers. You may need to log out, relaunch the Creative Cloud app, and log in again.

Preview is — no one wants to edit footage in real time. BRING BACK RAM PREVIEW! I have the same problem as thousands of after effects users audio glitching during "Preview" then when it plays the audio it is actually out of sync, preview is never at frame rate, highly frustrating if you use any sort of audio with visual effects, or actually want to preview your work without having to pre render. I am running a mac pro 2015, and this software is just a load of B. I have been using after effects for over 5 years and didn't install the 2015 when they switched to "preview" as to me it seems ridiculous. After effects cc ran better on my 2012 mac book pro than this does on my 2015 mac pro! The "RAM Preview" renders the frames first so then you are assured a smooth playback whatever ram you have installed, now there is no option for ram preview so the use of this program is pointless. Does anyone know how to re-download CC2014 as now in my adobe account I can only access cc2015 which has the same render process as this. Adobe sort it out.

I have paid more for adobe CC than I would if i bought the adobe package back when it was CS6, and now you screw over hardworking people who use your software daily so that you can try and make it cooler! Do everyone favour and test this on multiple machines with multiple different graphics cards before launching the update!!!! Thinking that everyone who uses after effects has a top spec desktop. No one I know who uses this software is happy with cc2015 or now cc2017 "preview" function, yet again you have forgotten about the general user. Please Adobe do some customer research before you bring out a product, ask consumers before you alienate yourself from the market

you can have the old behaviour of RAM Preview by simply setting up your preview settings like this:

let's take a closer look at this option:

this is exactly how RAM Preview worked. some Mac systems had playback problems even with this checked on since 2015. I cannot imagine how frustrating it is. I am a windows user and my experience is a better and better playback with every version. the latest 14.0.1 update will hopefully put an end to these problems.

another thing to check: in my system in this version of CC2017 and in CC2015.3, it appears that hardware acceleration checked on is NOT good for my playback with audio. so I check it off: